The task of integrating multiple systems into a computer network is often associated with custom programming and delays. This is particularly true when dealing with proprietary network components such as may often be found in hospital environments. For example, hospital information systems are conventionally employed to manage patient data and input medications that are to be administered to a patent. An electronic hospital information system typically must interact with an electronic pharmacy system within an automated facility, the interface between these two systems requires that the software communicate and process the data appropriately. When integrating a new network component into an existing system, the software providers of each system must meet and agree upon specifications prior to even establishing a project timetable, in order to ensure that the necessary communications and processing needs are met. This is attendant with great expense and difficulty.
On the other hand, most hospital information systems and pharmacy systems send data to label printers that identify a patient, a medication to be administered, the time of administration, contra-indications, and other data. It makes no difference whether the label printer is a local or network device. Thus, one way of obtaining a reliable data stream from one system for importing into another is to capture the data that is intended to be printed to a label. However, in order to operate on this data, subsequent processing is required. The present invention provides improvements in device interaction by initiating tasks in response to the receipt of data at a serial port that parse and manage the information in that data stream for handling by other network devices. In further aspects, the present invention identifies label data in a serial data stream and divides the label data into a first stream that launches automated medication preparation processes and a second stream that is redirected to a conventional printer.